While there is growing awareness in both doctor’s offices and health IT markets of the critical...
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When we talk about SAFe, in a nutshell we are talking about agile concepts on a much larger scale.
“SAFe for Lean Enterprises is a knowledge base of proven, integrated principles, practices, and competencies for achieving business agility using Lean, Agile, and DevOps.” (Scaled Agile Inc.)
In an earlier blog post, I shared an overview of agile concepts and adoption of agile principles which is accessible here. What does all this mean? To give it justice, I recommend exploring a 2-day SAFe class like SAFe For Teams for an in-depth overview. For the purposes of this blog, I will go over the very basics of what it means to scale agile to fit larger programs and productions.
Agile and SAFe Basic Terms and Definitions
So how do we start to scale? There are 3 key concepts which need to be a part of the conversation:
NewWave’s work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Center (CMMI) is an example of a large program which can be broken down into multiple separate, medium, and large platforms to ensure all the platform teams on the ART are coordinated together and in sync with each other. One reason they need to be in sync with each other is to make sure any dependencies between the agile teams on the ART are addressed prior to any release.
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is used to help ensure all those teams are working hand-in-hand together for overall product delivery efficiency. SAFe will ensure interdependencies are uncovered and it ensures our platforms are in sync for production deliveries, in short it would ensure we have achieved a level of business agility that would be used to satisfy our client.
As NewWave’s Agile Coach, part of my responsibilities are to make sure we have trained and engrained the agile concepts to all our team members. I also lead training and educational workshops for our staff on SAFe concepts though SAFe classes such as the one I mentioned earlier, SAFe For Teams. Once individuals and teams are trained on these principles and concepts, we can start doing releases using the ARTs, Agile Release Trains.
In summary
We need to learn to walk before we run. This is why it is critical to know the basics of agile before we can scale it to fit larger programs. SAFe is a process that enables programs to coordinate and deliver large products by ensuring all agile teams across all platforms are coordinated and synchronized. Enjoy your agile journey and have a SAFe trip.